Killer In The Cloister

It's the fall of 1965 when 28-year-old Sister Francesca leaves her small town convent in upstate New York to study theology at a large university in the Bronx. She expects to face demanding professors and challenging classes; she doesn't expect to become entangled in the controversies surrounding Vatican II. What she least expects is involvement in the mysterious death of her new Superior, Mother Ignatius. Was the old woman a victim of greedy neighborhood businessmen? Or was she simply in the way of unstoppable changes in the Church? In the process of investigating her Superior's murder, Sister Francesca risks her life and must come to terms with the changing world around her, a challenge to both her faith and her vows.

Christine de Pizan is in danger when she is sent to the Priory of Poissy to catch the killer of a young nun in this vividly imagined historical mystery set in fourteenth-century France. Paris, 1399. Scribe Christine de Pizan is sent to the Priory of Poissy by the palace to copy a manuscript for the prioress. But the prioress already has many copyists, and Christine senses that something is amiss. Her suspicions are confirmed when the prioress reveals that one of the sisters has been found murdered in the cloister. Fearing for the welfare of the king's young daughter who resides at the abbey, she is eager for Christine to find out who killed the young nun - and why. As Christine investigates, she uncovers dark mischief and closely guarded secrets, but can she unmask a killer? This compelling medieval mystery will appeal to fans of KAREN MAITLAND, SUSANNA GREGORY and CANDACE ROBB.

Perhaps Manhattan, like Christmas, is best seen through the eyes of a child. Gerry Porter provides both magical experiences for granddaughter Maddie when a SuperKrafts manager takes them to New York City for a huge crafts fair. They get to work on both making miniatures and solving crimes, the detecting duo's favorite pastimes. All this, plus Rockefeller Center and Radio City, too! But a crafty murderer wants to make sure they don t make it safely home again to California.

Math Professor Sophie Knowles shares her teaching venue with many other math and science faculty, most of whom she gets along with. But one in particular gives Sophie and her teaching assistant, Rachel, a hard time, thus annoying both women. When this colleague, a professor of chemistry, is found dead, poisoned in his office, Rachel is the prime suspect. It’s up to Sophie to put her talent for designing and solving puzzles to use to find his killer.

Geraldine Porter is thrilled to meet bestselling author and miniatures enthusiast Varena Young. The celebrity seems to seek friendship with Gerry and her crafts group, and makes a generous offer of a house from her collection for a library fund-raiser. But Young is suddenly murdered, and Gerry is left to investigate the crime. She and her eleven-year-old granddaughter Maddie delve for information on Young's mysterious past, and they find a clue to her murder in a secret room...of a dollhouse.

Now that Geraldine Porter is retired, she's got time to devote to her favorite craft. You'd think the world of shoe-box-sized Victorian shadow boxes and little ceramic bathtubs would be trouble free. But Gerry's problems are anything but tiny... Gerry likes working in a smaller scale, yet her to-do list is anything but. Between creating a miniature Victorian room box for the holiday auction, teaching crafts at the Mary Todd Retirement Home, and watching her granddaughter, her calendar is bursting with holiday cheer—until she has to add in a murder investigation. The gardener at the nursing home has been found dead, and one of her very own craft students, eighty-seven-year-old Sofia Muniz, is the prime suspect. With the help of a friend and fellow crafter, Gerry turns the home upside down trying to clear Sofia's name. What she uncovers in this upscale community is not a tiny can of worms—it's more like a twisted bunch of foul snakes. And it's up to Gerry to shrink the mystery down to size...

Now that Geraldine Porter is retired, she's got time to devote to her favorite craft and her precocious granddaughter, Madison. You'd think a world of shoe-box-sized high school hallways would be trouble free. But Gerry's problems are anything but tiny... When bookish Rosie Norman asks Gerry to accompany her to her thirtieth high school reunion, Gerry looks forward to seeing her old students. Rosie, however, has only one classmate in mind: star athlete David Bridges. Bearing a miniature replica of the bank of lockers where David once kissed her, Rosie has pinned her hopes on romance. The tiny corridor, however, becomes a giant clue when David is murdered—a clue that leads Gerry down a path of thirty-year-old alliances, betrayals, and grudges. Now with the help of her granddaughter, Gerry must employ all her skills to reconstruct the true scene of the crime...

Math Professor Sophie Knowles finds herself in the middle of an investigation after her friend, Henley College librarian, Charlotte Crocker, is found dead in the stacks. When Sophie learns that Charlotte wasn't the quiet, law-abiding citizen she seemed to be, she sets out to determine who her friend really was, and to find her killer. As she deals with a group of lottery players, winners and losers, the odds are Sophie will solve the puzzle.